CUMBERLAND ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY'S HOME PAGE

Welcome to the official website of the Cumberland Astronomical Society. We are a group of amateur astronomers based in Gallatin, Tennessee. Our focus is to bring astronomy to the general public in the upper middle Tennessee area. We hold several monthly events at local schools, libraries, and parks. Everyone is welcome, so please click the "EVENTS" link for dates and times.

Please enjoy the video below which gives a brief overview of the Cumberland Astronomical Society.

THIS JUST INSociety informationandNews from our Members!

Meetings will be held in the WARF Building at Vol State Community College until further notice.
Public Star Parties are being held at Bledsoe Creek State Park during the summer.
In the late fall and winter the Public Star Parties are being held Bledsoe Fort.
Please see The Events page for more detailed information.

Jan 26 2014

Special thanks go out to Melissa Farmer of Oakmont Elementary School in
Cottontown and its Principal for having us out for their Astronomy Day.
It was a blast sharing what we see and know about space with those students.
They were one of the most well behaved groups I've seen! I hope the students
enjoyed it as much as we did.

I'd also like to think Jack Stearman for setting it up. As well as Lloyd
Watkins for doing his presentations. Hope to be out there again in the
future! Maybe next there won't be snow and we can observe.

Jan 25 2015

We've been lucky to have a new comet from Christmas well into January.
In an article titled "Comet Lovejoy: How and where to watch once-in-a-
lifetime C/2014 Q2 soar closest to Earth" in the International Business
Times By Lydia Smith. We learn that the comet was discovered by the famous
Amateur Astronomer Terry Lovejoy in August of 2014. According to Astronomer
Dr Tanya Hill, of the University of Melbourne it get's it's green color in
pictures "due to the presence of two gases – cyanogen (CN)2 and diatomic
carbon (C2) – which glow green when their molecules are ionised or excited."

So with some of our club members braving the cold we thought it was
time to put up some of the members photos of Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2.

Jim Opalek Submitted the following images:

Ben Mclerran Submitted these.

Oct 25th 2014

There was an error on our Website. Tonights star party is supposed to be a club party
Sorry for the confusion.

Oct 23rd 2014

The new moon every so often lines up with the sun so that somewhere on the earths surface
An eclipse happens where the moon blocks some or most of the sun. We were lucky to have this
happen over our skies. Below are some the views of the sun from the 23rd by members and friends

From Tom Murdic:

Jewel Mclerran:

Ben Mclerran:

Tim Farris:

Randall Smart

Oct 19th 2014

After much editing Jewel Mclerran is putting together a series of video's to show what we
came across when attempting to collimate a Celestron 8se with a Hotech collimator. In this
series of videos club member David Craig brought in his Hotech Collimator. One thing you
may notice is that we were unable to bring the scope to focus. Instead of giving up we went
ahead with the steps just to see what all is involved. Hope you find these videos helpful

Oct 9th 2014

Ted Ed posted another video on distances in Astronomy. This exact question has come up many times.
Hope this video Helps clear things up.

Oct 8th 2014

Jewel and Ben Mclerran put together this video of the lunar eclipse.
the eclipse provided by

Here is an image of the Eclipse by Joey Gafford

Looking for a great Star Atlas Guide? Here it is!
This helpful article was written by a very knowledgeable amateur astronomer
Bill Warren - President of the Flint River Astronomy Club in Georgia.
To read and download the file, click here.

Deep Sky Objects - Circumpolar Constellations Click on the form above to view printable document in another window.

One of the advantages of membership in the Cumberland Astronomical Society is that we are a member of The Astronomical League, which is composed of over 200 astronomy clubs from all over the United States. Several of these member societies sponsor Observing Clubs, which award pins and certificates upon completion.

The purpose of the Double Star Club is to introduce observers to 100 of the finest double and multiple stars in the heavens. You don't need a large, expensive apochromatic refractor to view the objects on this list since a small refractor, Newtonian reflector, or Schmidt-Cassegrain will do just fine. All objects on this list were originally observed with a three-inch refractor using between 75X and 150X. Again, this program is meant to allow you to enjoy a different aspect of our wonderful hobby, and not to test your equipment.

Double star observing can be very forgiving. You don't need the darkest skies, the clearest skies, or even a moonless night to observe many of these objects. Some can be observed from your backyard under moderate light pollution, some can be observed under less than transparent skies, and some can even be observed with the moon up. However, as usual in astronomy, the best results can be obtained under optimum conditions. The point is, always try for the best conditions, but if you don't have them, don't worry about it. You can still enjoy this program.